00:00My name is Kathy Bates, and these are my close collabs.
00:04I didn't know who Adam Sandler was, and I got a script.
00:07It was a football script, and I was like,
00:09give me a football, which is 12 pages I read,
00:14and I thought, oh man, I can't do this thing, it's ridiculous.
00:17So I just tossed it in the wastebasket,
00:19and my niece, who works with me, saw it and picked it out.
00:23She said, what is this?
00:25I said, it's a script that some kid, Adam Sandler,
00:28and she went, Adam Sandler, you don't know the Hanukkah song?
00:32Put on your yarmulke, here comes Hanukkah.
00:37So I took a little look at it, and I thought, well, I'll do this for Linda.
00:42Turns out, we had the most fun.
00:44He's brilliant, he's a genius.
00:47Foosball! You playing the foosball behind my back?
00:51The only reason I'm doing it is so I can go to school.
00:55School? You going to school?
00:58I dove in the deep end, and just had a great time.
01:02Just screwed around, and I loved working with him.
01:05That's when he first started really getting known,
01:08and people really flocking to see him,
01:10and he said, we made $34 million in one weekend.
01:15And he was so taken aback.
01:18So, I don't know, it was a lot of fun.
01:20Henry Winkler, oh God bless him.
01:22What a great human being.
01:23Adam too. Crazy. Just crazy.
01:27Jessica Lange and I have worked on many projects together.
01:31First one was Men Don't Leave, which we did years and years and years ago, back in the 80s.
01:36I've always thought she's a very tough cookie.
01:38Really smart. Doesn't suffer fools gladly.
01:41Then we started working together.
01:43Must have been American Horror Stories when we got back together working.
01:46I remember calling her. That's what it was.
01:49My show got canceled, Harry's Law.
01:51I saw her on one of the first episodes of American Horror Story.
01:55I thought, what is this show?
01:56You know, they're really doing great work.
01:58So I called her, and she introduced me to Ryan Murphy.
02:02She's finally calibrated.
02:03That makes sense.
02:05She doesn't miss a second.
02:06Not a minute. A second.
02:08Everything is from second to second.
02:10It's so real.
02:11Have you any idea with whom you are speaking?
02:15Yes. The maid, unless you want to go back in the box.
02:19I loved working with her. Just loved it.
02:22There's an ease about it.
02:25I always look forward to the scenes that we had together.
02:27I felt like we were on the same level.
02:29We could really play tennis.
02:32Having the opportunity to play Bobby Jewell in Clint's movie about Richard Jewell
02:39was just a phenomenal experience.
02:41He's a real gent and wonderful director.
02:44I had something happen with him.
02:46Never happened before.
02:47This particular day, I had two very emotional scenes.
02:51One where she gives this speech to save her son.
02:54My son is innocent.
02:58Mr. President, please clear my son's name.
03:04I have a scene later in the kitchen where she's very emotional about it.
03:07So, when that happens, I always say you're keeping the pot on the stove.
03:12You know, you do your thing.
03:14You come back, turn the fire down, and you keep it going.
03:16It's the strangest thing, you know.
03:18I've been in movies for years and years, and makeup artists have been doing this for years and years.
03:24But it never fails that on one of those days while I'm sitting there in that chair
03:29trying to keep the pot on the stove, somebody comes to me and says,
03:32Are you all right?
03:32And I was like, What do you think I'm doing over here?
03:36You know?
03:37And I've never had a director do this before, but he had a second sense.
03:43One was heading over to me.
03:45I was sitting in my chair, and I got the pot on the stove.
03:48And he said, Leave her alone.
03:50It's so great.
03:53So great.
03:54Oh, what a guy.
03:56My favorite film role is Dolores Claiborne for so many reasons.
04:01Taylor Hackford, the director.
04:03I had the time to prepare for this role, and it's so rare to have that.
04:10My big beef with our work is that there's no time to create a role unless you're in a very
04:15special situation.
04:16Anyway, what I loved about Taylor was he gave me the time and the tools.
04:21We had lunch, and he said, What do you need to create this character?
04:25And I said, Well, I know I need movement.
04:27I need an accent.
04:29I need, you know, wigs and all of these things to create a woman who's had a hard life in
04:34the present, Dolores.
04:36And then we have flashes when she goes into the past and she's young.
04:41Working with Jennifer Jason Leigh was a real honor.
04:44She's a fantastic actress.
04:46I thought we had a really good chemistry together.
04:48But I was so happy with the way that it turned out.
04:51We accomplished all of our goals to create a character, physicality, that has a shorthand when she's old and she's
05:00cooking.
05:00And the young, vital, fierce, younger Dolores.
05:05Matlock is a miracle for me.
05:07I had one foot out the door.
05:10It was just a film that I did not too long before.
05:13It just was such a heartbreaking disappointment.
05:17You know, at my age, I'm going to be 80 in two years.
05:20I just thought, if this is not working out, it's not giving me any happiness.
05:25And then I got the script from Matlock.
05:27And at first I was reading and I was talking to my friend in New York, Billy.
05:32I said, Oh, this is just a procedural.
05:34He said, Did you read it?
05:36Did you finish it?
05:37He said, Read it to the end.
05:39So I read.
05:39And of course, it's got this great twist at the end.
05:42And I thought, Oh, okay.
05:44Now we're talking.
05:44I wanted it to be about something.
05:47I didn't want it just to be a case of the week.
05:49And the fact that there's this woman who's got a real mission and something in the real world that people
05:56are struggling with.
05:57Not so easy.
05:58I mean, I get to sit with my daughter.
06:00I get to talk to her.
06:02But it's not real.
06:03I know that.
06:06It doesn't matter because it feels real.
06:09And discovering that Skye P. Marshall can really step up to the plate.
06:14That was a gift.
06:15She's great to work with.
06:16They all are.
06:17You know, it's the crew.
06:19I know people always say this kind of stuff, you know, during these interviews.
06:23But we've brought such a great group of people.
06:25There's so much love on the set.
06:26You feel the focus.
06:27And the one thing, you know, I think part of it is that times are hard.
06:31A lot of people in this industry are out of work.
06:33A lot of people.
06:35Every department, we get calls from friends saying, do you have anything?
06:38I'm looking for something.
06:40So that's a big part of our joy is that we have a place to go every day.
06:45We have something wonderful to make.
06:47So everybody's really excited to be there.
06:50Jason's so funny.
06:51I love working with him.
06:52He's a wonderful new guy, Henry.
06:54He's just a delight.
06:56It's just been a joyous experience.
06:58It really has.
06:59And I had no idea it was going to be this successful.
07:01So I'm grateful.
07:03Glad I stuck around.
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